Your Thoughts: Sesame Street Season 40

[ISNorden]

I'm seriously hoping that the street story carries the season finale this time, since the rest of each episode has followed a cookie-cutter format so far. If I had to sum up Season 40 in a single word, that word would be "anticlimactic".

 

[SSLFan]

Just a reminder. The series finale airs tomorrow. I hope it at least has a good ending.

The series finale? O.O Sesame Street is ending completely? Say it ain't so!

 

[Drtooth]

The series finale? O.O Sesame Street is ending completely? Say it ain't so!

I'm thinking in British again. I of course meant season.

 

[Drtooth]

Okay... did Roosevelt Franklin appear at the very very very beginning, a split second after the theme song? I either missed it or they edited it out. Very disappointed by them if they did.

But overall a very cute story, Abby and Rosita work GREAT together. And Paul Rudd's Prince made the episode a lot more interesting than it needed to be. They let him bang his head on the wall with no complaints so far. other than the fact that it, like most of the episodes this season, felt deserted, a pretty good season finale.

Again with the freakin' Abby threeruns. Well, I can confirm they only made 10. 10 doesn't divide well into 26. I'll go into this tomorrow, but I like the idea of Abby's Fairy School, and I don't even mind that it lasts almost 10 minutes. But the fact we've seen most of the episodes 3 times, not to mention that the new episodes without new material alternate with previous reruns... not smart at all.

But HEY, we finally got another Ernie and Bert great adventure. Not one of their best (I really want to see the museum guard one in English), but at least it isn't another rerun of Murray from last year which they already ran twice. Again, I love the segment, but they didn't alternate enough between the two.

Oh, and as much as I love (and prefer) the original Ten Tiny Turtles Talking on the Telephone, I have to say I dug the remake. All I'm sayin... if you can't make a decent new segment (something few and far between) just remake an old one. Chances are they wouldn't want to show that old one anyway.

Tomorrow, I'm gonna post a complete season 40 wrap up.

 

[ISNorden]

The season finale in review

The good points:

• Decent street story; kids need to know that just because they're playing pretend, it doesn't mean fantasy-world solutions help when something goes wrong "for real" in the game. (Taking a break from the nature/environmental theme was good too; I wish the Workshop had taken a few more thematic breaks during the "Healthy Habits for Life" years.)
• Great melodramatic reactions by the prince; I'm reminded of the Muppet Prince Charming in Kermit's old Sesame Street News sketches.
• The "ants at a picnic" letter sketches have a good balance between humor and lesson material; I hope to see 24 more over the next few seasons.
• The "Ten Tiny Turtles" remake was OK as remakes go; the turtles and veggies looked reasonably close to Bud Luckey's originals, though I wish they hadn't tampered with the lyrics. (What on earth is wrong with "black-eyed peas" or "the ones that they call Brussels"?)

The bad points:

• I've said this in a lot of episode reviews, but.."Abby's Flying Fairy School" needs to be cut shorter next season.
• Elmo's World: The topic (penguins) tied in with the story fairly well, but the emperor penguin's "Caesar" shtick and Bubba's Southern dialect humor went a little too far.
• Tacking a "Healthy Habits" clip on after Murray announces the Things of the Day: OK, I can live with slipping one health lesson in per episode, but the placement feels wrong. Almost like some serial movie-maker putting up a "The End" title card, then adding a scene that belongs somewhere in the middle...

All things considered: With the hit-and-miss quality Sesame Street has shown this season, I was half afraid to watch the finale; thankfully, the strong points of this episode outweigh the weak ones. On a 5-star scale, I'd give it 3 1/2 stars...five minus a star for the usual Season 40 problems, and minus another half star for rewriting those remake lyrics.

 

[Drtooth]

The "Ten Tiny Turtles" remake was OK as remakes go; the turtles and veggies looked reasonably close to Bud Luckey's originals, though I wish they hadn't tampered with the lyrics. (What on earth is wrong with "black-eyed peas" or "the ones that they call Brussels"?)

I betchya WMG owns the rights to that band name, and now no one can ever say Blackeyed peas without having to pay them.

 

[Muppet Frog]

I liked how we got to see Kermit twice this season and 6 girlfriend inserts were seen too.

 

[ISNorden]

I liked how we got to see Kermit twice this season and 6 girlfriend inserts were seen too.

What do you mean by "girlfriend inserts"? I don't recall any regular characters this season having romantic relationships.

 

[Muppet Frog]

What I mean is Zoe, Rosita and Abby all hanging out together.

 

[ISNorden]

What I mean is Zoe, Rosita and Abby all hanging out together.

Got it--somehow I was thinking of characters like Count von Count's various girlfriends over the years.